Roundup: Eight States, Fifteen Bills, One Big Pea

Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Florida, Michigan. So many states with so many stories this week. I’ll try to round them all up for you here in case you missed any of them.

Then, I will amuse you with giant vegetables. You have been warned…

In Colorado, as we reported yesterday, the latest “Personhood Amendment” push is woefully behind. In order to be successful, they need to come up with 1000 valid signatures a day for the next 14 days.

Utah, reeling from the publicity they received over their “miscarriage ban,” is now pulling the bill for tweaking. They will eliminate the “reckless act” portion that literally made any woman who suffered a miscarriage a potential suspect.

Finally, Arizona senate passed three bills this week, one to ban taxpayer abortions, one regarding health risks from donating eggs, and one to regulate use of embryos, which the bill’s sponsor says are “human beings, not tissues.” The bills barely passed the senate and even were criticized by other Republicans.

Sen. Carolyn Allen, a lawmaker from Scottsdale, was the only Republican who voted against all three bills. She said lawmakers should be working on the budget instead of measures that restrict the reproductive rights of women.

“The calendar today and some that are going to come appears to me to be almost anti-female,” she said.